The twelve sailors of Romanian vessel M/N Ardeal, held at Mongla port under a court order, yesterday urged the government to allow them to leave the country on humanitarian ground.

"Please, let us go as we are passing days in starvation." its Captain Chlriac Costel told a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club here.

The ship anchored at Mongla port on March 15 last year*with 6,500 tonnes of rice from Bombay. India.

It was held under a court order after the rice, supplied by an Indian company. Navicom. was found rotten.

The rice was purchased by the government through a Bangladeshi company. Sea Coast.

Costel said they are not responsible for the quality of the rice, over which the Bangladesh Ministry of Food and the supplier are now locked in a legal battle.

"We have only carried the consignment to the country. We should not suffer in the dispute." he said.

Costel said the ship belonged to a Romanian company. Sccnm Romline. with which the Sea Coast had signed Die contract for carrying the consignment. He

said they can not contact Sccnm Romline now as the company has gone bankrupt.

"We could not place our request through official channel as Romania has no embassy in Bangladesh", he said.

"We are run out of ration and the ship has became inoperative due to lack of fuel and maintenance," he said.

The Romanian government sent a parliamentarian -Dorel Constantin Onaca- to Bangladesh in September this year to settle the matter. But he could not meet any high official despite repeated attempts, Md. Rafiqql Islam, a Bangladeshi who works as a Counsellor to Dorel in Romania. alleged at the press conference. Islam said has been sent by the Romanian government to settle Die matter.

Islam said he had also accompanied Dorel in September. Prog-

ress in settlement of the issue has been very slow as Romanian has no embassy in Dhaka, he said.

Earlier. Ihree crew of the ship were allowed to leave the country on medical ground. Most of the crew are now suffering from various diseases, they said.

Carstea Ghorghe. First Engineer of the ship, has been suffering from chronic renal problem. Doctors detected Iwo stones in his kidney and advised surgery, but the treatment can not be done due to lack of money, they said.

They claimed that the ship was held after the Sea Coast took delivery of 2.500 tonnes of the rice. The court order followed a complaint by the food ministry, they said.

Oilier sources claimed that the Sea COast, in connivance with some corrupt officials of Ihe food ministry, managed to get 95 per

cent of the payment for the sup-ply.

The sources said the government will lose heavily even if it takes over the ship because it is of "scrap category' and will not be valued at over Tk five crore while the price of the rice Is more than Tk eight crore.